Beneath the gleaming
skyscrapers and picturesque facade of the City of Redemption lies another city;
a community of dark and ancient magic populated by creatures of the night. Dark
Redemption is a shared-world novel based on an online role-playing game by
James Crowther.
Cassandra True has
discovered that her roommate Cecily has become involved with a vampire and has
confronted her about the subject. In
order to gain her friend’s trust, Cassandra decides to share her own apprehensions
and concerns about her own relationship with Strephon.
Cassandra
made a couple fresh cups of coffee and sat back down on the couch with
Cecily. She told the whole story, from
the day she met Strephon in the lobby of Aeser Technologies, through the wolf
attack and the dinner party with Aeserman and her date with Strephon at the
Club Cyba-Netsu and her ordeal with mad Mrs. Morrigan and above all, her
strange dreams. Cecily squirmed a little
when Cassandra described seeing the vampire waiter at the Cyba-Netsu and her
ensuing conversation with Ms Kuriyama, but Cassandra did not pursue that
particular subject and continued with her story. She finished up with her discovery of the
strange parallels between what she knew about Strephon and the character in the
Gilbert & Sullivan operetta.
“So…
this Strephon is a fairy from the waist up?” Cecily said when she had finished.
Cassandra
felt her cheeks burn. Put that way, it
did sound stupid. “Well…”
“And
his legs are mortal. What about the
parts in-between?”
“You
would ask that question. And what about
you? You almost made out with a ghost!”
“I
didn’t know he was a ghost! Besides,
everyone believes in ghosts; no one believes in fairies.”
“Arthur
Conan Doyle believed in both.” Cecily
gave a snort in response. “And what
about Wisp and Banshee? They were
certainly something supernatural. And
don’t tell me you don’t believe in the supernatural.”
“Okay,
okay. I was just playing Devil’s
Somethinger’nother.” Cecily paused a
moment to give Cassandra time to sip her coffee. “How does he feel about you?”
Cassandra
grimaced. “That’s just it. He keeps me at arm’s length. But he keeps seeing me. So I don’t know.”
“Hmm…”
Cecily gave her cup a little swirl.
“That could mean he’s jerking you around, which means you should run
away as fast as you can. Or it could
mean he’s afraid of a relationship but likes you too much to stay away. How do you feel about him?”
“That’s
what I’ve been trying to figure out.”
“Then
let’s put it this way. What bothers you
the most; that he’s not exactly human, or that he’s been lying to you?”
Cassandra
looked down at her coffee. That really
was the question she’d been trying to avoid.
Cecily was incredibly perceptive when it came to everybody’s problems
but her own. “Neither, I think. It’s just that ever since I met him, all
these weird things have been happening; the wolves, the stuff at Aeser
Technologies, Morrigan… I feel like I’m being drawn into something that I can’t
understand that’s beyond my control.”
A
strange, faraway look had come into Cecily’s eyes. “Yeah…” she said dreamily, “I know what you
mean…”
“And
I’m getting you involved too. It’s my
fault!”
“What?” That seemed to catch Cecily’s attention. “No, I was the one who introduced you to the
Club Cyba-Netsu, remember? I probably
would have met Philippe there anyway.”
“All
right then; your turn.” Cassandra set
her coffee down and folded her hands in a business-like manner. “Tell me about Philippe.”
Cecily
scrunched her face. But she couldn’t
very well back out. “Well, for starters,
he doesn’t sparkle.”
“Thank
God for that.”
“I
met him at the Cyba-Netsu the night after the ghost, remember? You didn’t want to come with me that night.”
Cassandra
remembered. If only she had been along,
maybe… But let Cecily tell her story.
“Go on,” Cassandra urged.
“I
saw Kuriyama that night and she invited me to sit at her table with her
friends.”
“Friends
meaning vampires?”
“Well,
I didn’t know that at the time, now, did I?
It was… You’ll laugh. It was like
being at school and being invited to sit at the table with the posh kids.”
Cassandra
didn’t laugh. She knew exactly what
Cecily meant. She nodded encouragingly.
“Well,
she introduced me to Phillippe, and he was so dark and dangerous and sexy. I didn’t know he was a vampire until he…
until he did it.” No need to ask what
‘it’ was. “It was incredible. It was like he was drawing my soul into his…” Cecily’s gaze wandered off again and her
voice took on a tone of dreamy bliss.
“How
does he treat you? When he’s not… doing
it?” Cassandra tried to keep the
disapproval out of her own voice, but didn’t quite succeed.
“What
do you mean?”
“As
someone once told me, if he’s jerking you around you should run away, fast.”
“He
treats me wonderfully. Like I’m the
center of his universe. And he doesn’t
jerk me around.” Cecily was starting to
get defensive again.
“I’m
sorry. I just keep on thinking of that
one girl I saw at the Cyba-Netsu; the one who was begging the green-haired
waiter to bite her. It was like she was an
addict or something---“
“I’m
not doing drugs!”
The
suddenness of Cecily’s response startled Cassandra. “I didn’t say you were. I just–“
“We’ll
I’m not! And you have no right to be
making those kinds of accusations!”
Cassandra
frowned. She hadn’t thought she was
accusing her of anything.”
Cecily
stood up, angrily. “Do you know what I
think? I think you’re an uptight little
bitch who’s so afraid of adventure that she can’t handle it when something a
little different happens in her life!”
“Cecily,
wait!” But it was too late; Cecily had
already stormed back into her room.
Cassandra
groaned. That had gone badly. She looked at the clock. She had two hours left to sleep before her
alarm went off.
All
that coffee was probably a mistake.
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